Dick Tracy, Detective

Thirty million readers followed the exploits of Dick Tracy in the daily comics, so it made sense for RKO to jump on the bandwagon. The first entry in what would be a four-film series, Dick Tracy, Detective finds Tracy hunting a murderer who slashes his victims to pieces. Morgan Conway stars as the crime-busting detective, while the menacing Mike Mazurki is cast as Splitface, a hulking goon who lurks in the shadows. William Berke, who directed everything from westerns to jungle movies during his years on Hollywood's Poverty Row, gives us a Dick Tracy movie that is a cut above most B films.